Davion Mitchell
- Thread starter TheMobb
- Start date
I think what hurt him the most was that he wasn’t able to get into a rhythm last season, offensively. He feels like he needs to play a large chunk of minutes in a row to get going on offense, but that’s just not reasonable to see happening if Fox stays healthy. And even when he does get minutes, we have other ball handlers he shares time with.
Absolutely agree here.
In Davion's rookie season he started 19 games. One was a fill in, then he had a stretch of 6 games when De'Aaron was injured, and finally 11 straight to finish the season when Fox was shut down.
As a starter he put up 18 ppg and 7.4 apg. But much more importantly, his shooting numbers improved considerably.
As a starter: 45.1% FG, 33.7 % 3P, 76.3% FT
As a reserve: 39.8% FG, 30.6% 3P, 57.4% FT (!)
19 games is maybe still a small enough sample size to wonder if he was just on a hot streak, especially to finish the season and largely against tanking or coasting teams.
But I don't think that's it. I think you're absolutely right that Mitchell is a player that needs to get into a rhythm.
In Davion's rookie season he started 19 games. One was a fill in, then he had a stretch of 6 games when De'Aaron was injured, and finally 11 straight to finish the season when Fox was shut down.
As a starter he put up 18 ppg and 7.4 apg. But much more importantly, his shooting numbers improved considerably.
As a starter: 45.1% FG, 33.7 % 3P, 76.3% FT
As a reserve: 39.8% FG, 30.6% 3P, 57.4% FT (!)
19 games is maybe still a small enough sample size to wonder if he was just on a hot streak, especially to finish the season and largely against tanking or coasting teams.
But I don't think that's it. I think you're absolutely right that Mitchell is a player that needs to get into a rhythm.
There is almost no way Davion can play anything close to 30 mpg unless Fox is out or the Kings suffer major setbacks at SG. It's not out of the question that Monk sees an increase in minutes and if he does it comes at the expense of either Davion or Huerter. The advantage minutes wise goes to Huerter based on the fact that he can play some forward. With some of the young additions this summer like Jones and Duarte, and retaining Edwards, it's possible Davion could have a hard time even averaging the 18 per game he did last season.
not quite sure why some are so infatuated with him needing to be some type of offensive force, he's a defensive specialist and that's why he was drafted in the lottery. Anything else is pie in my opinion, a mini Marcus Smart would be just fine as far as I'm concerned. Kings didn't struggle to put up points last season.
Year 3 was when he figured out his 3pt jumper in college so there's at least a "past history" reason to be optimistic that he'll take that leap forward as a shooter this year. And this is probably the year he needs to do it to keep his spot considering Monte will have a decision to make on how much to offer Malik Monk next summer and backup PG minutes is where we'd be looking to find him more playing time to justify the starter or near starter level contract he deserves. I love Davion and want to see him stick around so I hope he's a bright spot for us in this upcoming season.
Monte has built a team where things will play out the way they play out. If Davion wins whatever battle there is next to Fox so be it. This is a team with a lot of G's and F's that lean more towards PF. Someone is getting the short end most likely unless Brown decides to continue to play small or way big with lineups around Barnes, Lyles, Keegan, and Sasha.
I bet he is traded during the season. I like him a lot and his defense is incredible, but he’s too situational of a player. He can only guard 1-2 positions and many players just shoot over him. I wouldn’t be sad at all if he did stay with the team, you can do a whole lot worse than him on the bench.
I’m not knocking this and it’s fair, but I’d just like to point out it’s easy to come to a conclusion on a player when you don’t see results. Kyle Lowry for example didn’t do much his first 5 years in the league, but later became an all star PG. Not saying Davion is gonna turn into an all star, just that while he came in as an older rookie he’s still just 24 years old and still growing and improving.
I think the thinking here is that his lack of offense is what's keeping him off the floor. A Davion Mitchell that is a effective on offense is, combined with his ELITE defense all the sudden becomes sixth man of the year type material.
But the Kings actually did struggle to put up points in certain stretches last year. It was the story to two teams. Our starting five, plus Malik, were so nuts on offense that it covered up for some combos that would go completely cold for 4-5 minutes at a time. We need to eliminate those stretches and Mitchell becoming a mini spark plug on offense can go a long way towards that.
But the Kings actually did struggle to put up points in certain stretches last year. It was the story to two teams. Our starting five, plus Malik, were so nuts on offense that it covered up for some combos that would go completely cold for 4-5 minutes at a time. We need to eliminate those stretches and Mitchell becoming a mini spark plug on offense can go a long way towards that.